Seeing as virgin galactic is currently a private experimental endeavour not open to the general public I don't see what the big deal is about this inside baseball. The ship may have strayed from its flight plan but the chance of collision with something else is pretty close to nil since 3d space is big and white sands test range is in a very remote area.
It also does not smell right to me for a reporter to be taking sides in internal HR issues and siding with terminated employees.
All that said commercial space tourism will never work out in our life times and it is basically just a vannity project for billionaires like self-driving cars.
Nothing fundamental has changed since the 1970s. Space is big. It is empty. It is dangerous. And last it is very expensive. If Virgin can bring the cost of human space tourism flight down to $100,000 for example, that is still just a way to separate rich fools from their money. $100k for 15 minutes of flight and nifty view. Humans belong on Earth. There is nothing out there besides a nice view and a whole lot of empty space.
Wait until the competition perfectly simulates space flight using an isolation tank and a VR headset. Woah same experience on the ground but with no risk of burning up on re-entry and much cheaper too.
Almost nothing relevant to humans who live about 80 years and evolved on Earth. If humans lived millions of years and there were other life supporting planets then space travel might be interesting...assuming one could even navigate between star systems.
Again and again I see the pattern of real world tech aspirations being driven by science fiction fantasy. The thing is though that real world tech is constrained by reality while fiction is not.
No, you will not be riding in driverless cars on mars in 2100.
We have the tech now for interstellar travel and we had it since the 1960s in the form of Project Orion - the only issue is that it needs a couple thousands thermonuclear warheads to work. And I'm sure better options will show up over time, as space infrastructure develops.
As for habitable planets - we already quite heavily modify the one we live one to suit us better (eq. I would freeze to death where I live without heating in the winter) so large habitats built from in space resources might be a better option anyway long term.
It also does not smell right to me for a reporter to be taking sides in internal HR issues and siding with terminated employees.
All that said commercial space tourism will never work out in our life times and it is basically just a vannity project for billionaires like self-driving cars.
Nothing fundamental has changed since the 1970s. Space is big. It is empty. It is dangerous. And last it is very expensive. If Virgin can bring the cost of human space tourism flight down to $100,000 for example, that is still just a way to separate rich fools from their money. $100k for 15 minutes of flight and nifty view. Humans belong on Earth. There is nothing out there besides a nice view and a whole lot of empty space.
Wait until the competition perfectly simulates space flight using an isolation tank and a VR headset. Woah same experience on the ground but with no risk of burning up on re-entry and much cheaper too.